I was very lucky to be invited out for a seafood dinner last week and was fortunate enough to have brought along Apple's camera which I could conveniently stuff in my pocket. Thankfully she loaned it to me that night else I wouldn't have photos to post here.
Anyway, Hai Boey is located on the road leading to Gertak Sanggul on the southern tip of Penang island. The roads leading to this place is pretty dark at night so do drive slowly. It's easily spotted with the huge signboard with its name on it. For those heading there from Bayan Lepas, its on your left.
So on with the food. Since this was my first time there, I let my friends do the ordering and just be prepared for any surprises which will come along. The first was "Chi Leh" or spiky shells. Its cooked by just blanching it with hot water and we use a toothpick to pull out the meat of the shells. Its like a type of snail from the sea. Nothing too special here.
The 2nd dish was fried meat with brinjal. The brinjal and meat was held with skewers and then deep fried with a light batter. It was pretty refreshing and there was pork and prawns in the mix. I couldn't taste much of the brinjal though as it was sliced pretty thin. Probably would have been good if it was abit thicker. I still like it though.
3rd came my drink for which I ordered a coconut. Thankfully it was from the fridge so the juice was cold! Great. But the coconut was very old and the meat was hard and not very nice to eat. So I ended up just drinking the coconut juice. OK la for a drink.
4th, happens to be the 4 heavenly kings. No we are not talking about canto pop but this is basically 4 types of vegetables fried with Belacan or fermented prawn paste. This was really good and the Belacan was flavorful and it has just the right amount of spiciness to it. The vegetables was also well cooked and you can tell it was cooked over high heat (wok hei).
The 5th dish caught me by surprise. We had lobster, and it was huge! I'm not really a big fan of lobster as I feel that lobster meat is abit tough. The lobster was prepared ala local stir fried lobster with cheese. The meat was cut into large chunks and I got a pretty decent piece. It smelled good and looked menacing. But as I thought, it was abit tough to the bite. It's just not as tender as it is with a tiger prawn. But I guess for a lobster, it was pretty well prepared. Cooked anymore and it would be really spoilt. So a pretty good attempt though its not something I would eat everyday.
6th is their Char Hor Fun. Now this I have to say was a really good noodle dish. The noodles was well fried and flavorful and the sauce that is filled with seafood like squid and prawns was made just right. Highly recommended I would say. Later the captain did mention that their signature was Char Hor Fun with lobster, but that would then mean a really expensive plate of Char Hor Fun.
7th is steamed marble goby. This was probably the best dish of the evening. In Chinese, this fish is also known as Soon Hock or Lam Goh. Its a fresh water fish which is carnivorous and it used to be affordable until everyone realize how good it tastes. The flesh is very smooth and like a silky texture to it. It was also steamed just nice, perfectly cooked and the soya sauce that compliments it just give it a sweeter taste to the fish. Very good indeed.
8th is another vegetable dish. This time its steamed bitter gourd with meat stuffing. Yeap another vegetable with stuffing but for those that like bitter gourd, this one is really pretty tasty. The bitter gourd is steamed till its soft, and then its poured with a sauce. Its cut when its served at the table. The sauce goes well with the bitter gourd and the meat just adds some sweetness to compliment it.
9th is stir fry baby kai lan. This was just cooked with garlic and it was pretty normal. Nothing to shout about here.
10th and 11th are the last dishes and they are both crabs. There was BBQ crab with honey glaze and then there was the crab cooked with salted egg yolk. I preferred the BBQ crab more as you are able to savour the sweetness of the crab meat. I felt the one with the egg yolk was abit overcooked and the meat of the crab didn't turn out so well.
All in all, I must thank my friends for this lovely, and expensive meal (the lobster probably cost half of it). Hai Boey is surely a good place for some good food and the place was actually pretty packed with people even on a weekday. Try this place out ya. Do leave some comments too especially if you have been there and maybe have some food to recommend.
